Namibians have a lot to be proud of. It is one of the most spectacular countries in terms of scenery and wildlife. In addition, it has enormous mineral wealth.
The most important ingredient of this country however, is its people. Namibians have emerged from decades of colonialism and apartheid rule to become one of the most integrated societies in the world. Regardless of social, economic or political background, Namibians are proud of their country.
As a child of Independence, having raised the flag of Namibia over Windhoek the morning of 21 March 1990, I am grateful for those who went before me to ensure the quality of life we can all enjoy.
I have been trained in investment promotion, or in plain words, marketing of Namibia to outsiders. This has had its share of success and failure, but more importantly given me the chance to study the people, the landscape, the business sectors, history and so much more.
This book is the result of my experiences and study of the best system for making this country even better for us, and our generations to come. While preparing the book I was looking for a basis on which to write. The best structure, I believe, has been to write this book as a “Business Plan for Namibia”. Accordingly, I looked at:
· Management (Government, Legislature and Executive)
· External and Internal Environments (PEST analysis)
· Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)
· Marketing planning(through segmentation and targeting) to find the best value proposition
· Forecasting
In all these, I looked for the best result achieved in other countries such as China, Germany, France, Netherlands, Japan, USA, etc and adapted it to our specific situation.
Throughout this book I also looked at how to integrate technology into our systems and daily lives. I have struggled to find a term for this and the best I could find was “Progress through Technology”, or in German, “Vorsprung Durch Technik” . I prefer to use the German expression because in German the word “Technik” not only means technology, but also the technique of studying and mastering the skills of something.
My conclusion is that in Namibia, discrimination is not based only on race, culture, gender, or geographical location, but more importantly in access to services (and technology).
Just as in any business plan, this book is not set in stone. It is a work in progress that will develop and change to reflect the changes in our society. I hope that you the reader, will not only read, but become a participant in creating this vision of “Future Namibia”.
Future Namibia Mission Statement
“Develop the tools and systems to assist the management of Namibia (government, civil society and private sector) in providing access to services and technologies to allow maximum quality of life to all who live here.”
Milton Louw
14 August 2011
